Blue Origin's New Glenn rocket just exploded during a static fire test
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Blue Origin's New Glenn rocket just exploded during a static fire test
New Glenn was due to play a starring role in NASA's Artemis Program.
https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/05/blue-origins-new-glenn-rocket-just-exploded-during-a-static-fire-test/?utm_brand=arstechnica&utm_social-type=owned&utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=socialFun prompt:
If today's U.S. centi-billionaires were taxed at the same rates as in the 1960s, how many Apollo program budgets could be funded with that tax revenue?

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Blue Origin's New Glenn rocket just exploded during a static fire test
New Glenn was due to play a starring role in NASA's Artemis Program.
https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/05/blue-origins-new-glenn-rocket-just-exploded-during-a-static-fire-test/?utm_brand=arstechnica&utm_social-type=owned&utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social -
Blue Origin's New Glenn rocket just exploded during a static fire test
New Glenn was due to play a starring role in NASA's Artemis Program.
https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/05/blue-origins-new-glenn-rocket-just-exploded-during-a-static-fire-test/?utm_brand=arstechnica&utm_social-type=owned&utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=socialthat was a bigger bomb then last year's box office
and I'll send anybody an ass pick if they get that last reference first one gets it
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@julieofthespirits @iamnotU @arstechnica
Well said.
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@TomGwozdz @arstechnica They're still using the same old bell nozzles that are efficient at sea level, but far less in space. We made progress with the space shuttle but now we're back to capsules like Apollo and Mercury. We should be able to take off from a runway, fly up, transition and then go to space.
@T2R @TomGwozdz @arstechnica
This is the Kerbal Space Program mentality
There are actually many reasons why an HTOL SSTO is not a very good idea in real life, so many in fact that if I listed all of them I would be here all day
Conventional chemical rockets are too inefficient, and jet engines add a ton of complexity that you really, really would rather not have
Thus, I entirely understand why nobody has bothered to actually build one yet -
Fun prompt:
If today's U.S. centi-billionaires were taxed at the same rates as in the 1960s, how many Apollo program budgets could be funded with that tax revenue?

@oliver_schafeld a centi-billionaire is 1/10000 of a hecto-billionaire, which is what these people are… I guess LLMs are not big on SI prefixes… I’m sure none of them will be allowed to do calculations that matter, right? Right?
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@oliver_schafeld a centi-billionaire is 1/10000 of a hecto-billionaire, which is what these people are… I guess LLMs are not big on SI prefixes… I’m sure none of them will be allowed to do calculations that matter, right? Right?
»A centibillionaire (prefix: centi- from Latin centum 'hundred' and billionaire)[1] is an individual whose net worth is at least 100 billion units of a given currency, typically USD.«
1: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/centi-

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@T2R @TomGwozdz @arstechnica
This is the Kerbal Space Program mentality
There are actually many reasons why an HTOL SSTO is not a very good idea in real life, so many in fact that if I listed all of them I would be here all day
Conventional chemical rockets are too inefficient, and jet engines add a ton of complexity that you really, really would rather not have
Thus, I entirely understand why nobody has bothered to actually build one yet@iagondiscord @TomGwozdz @arstechnica We have already figured out the turbojet to ramjet transition. Now we just need to add an oxidizer to allow it to operate in space. Ya I know I'm over simplifying that last bit, but it is progress and what we should be sinking $$$ into instead of the same old same old.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8a4kpgA_edU -
@julieofthespirits @arstechnica at least what we know about it
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Blue Origin's New Glenn rocket just exploded during a static fire test
New Glenn was due to play a starring role in NASA's Artemis Program.
https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/05/blue-origins-new-glenn-rocket-just-exploded-during-a-static-fire-test/?utm_brand=arstechnica&utm_social-type=owned&utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social@arstechnica Ahora va a desempeñar un papel "estallar". Me da a mi que Artemis va a tener algunos problemillas para estar en la luna. Aunque con semejante explosión puede eyectar a los astronautas en vuelo directo y sin motor.